Find My Past makes death record searching easier

The family history website Find My Past has launched a quicker way to find deaths, completing a two-year project to make the birth, marriage and death records of England and Wales easier to use.

Find My Past says that more than 1,000 people have worked on this project, rescanning 170 years of records and transcribing the quarter of a billion names they contain.

The company says: “This final instalment means that over 85 million death records can now be searched with as little as a surname. This will return a list of individual names, so you’ll no longer need to search through pages of results to spot your ancestor. Finding a death record will take a fraction of the time that it used to.

“For the first time ever, you can now search for your ancestors in the following records all at once:

England & Wales deaths 1837-2006

British nationals died overseas 1818-2005

British nationals armed forces deaths 1796-2005

British nationals died at sea 1854-1890

“Find My Past is the only place you can search these records in one go. So if you’ve tried without success to find your ancestor’s death record elsewhere, try again using our powerful new search.”